I recently posted this as a comment on the Deadlands Noir Kickstarter and thought perhaps I should throw it onto the forum here as well.

I am ridiculously excited about Deadlands Noir. Some friends online recently asked me why I'm so interested in it, and while I don't think I can perfectly capture my feelings on the matter, I did try to piece together something to convey at least some of it. Here's what I told them:

It's a bit obvious, given the game's title, but it all comes down to my love of Noir and my love of Deadlands.

I've wanted there to be a noir / urban fantasy mashup RPG since I saw the HBO movie Cast a Deadly Spell back in the 90's. I was so enamored of the idea that I included a demonic spellcasting gangster villain in my Amber Diceless RPG campaign. The first time I read Mage: the Ascension (around the same time) the idea that leaped to mind as I was reading was to do a Mage campaign set in 30's Chicago in which Technocratic and vampiric forces were coming into conflict, and with Capone's people getting caught in the middle. I became so enthralled with this campaign idea that for the first time in my life, I voluntarily read a non-RPG-related nonfiction book: Al Capone's biography. I read it cover to cover. I then went on to read every World of Darkness book I could get my hands on that I thought might be relevant to the campaign. Because, to put it mildly, I'm a continuity freak. I picked up the Technocracy Syndicate book, the various Giovanni books, the Chicago by Night volumes, Wraith: the Great War, WoD: Mafia, etc etc etc. Anything and everything I thought might come into play ended up on my bookshelf.

Sadly, the campaign itself never happened. There was never quite enough time. Eventually I fell out of love with the World of Darkness (though I still remember it fondly and play its current iteration on a regular basis), but that same basic desire for a noir urban fantasy/horror game remained. (As an aside, it is largely for this reason that I am currently reading the Dresden Files RPG.)

Now, as it happens, Deadlands is one of my most favorite things on the planet. I've been following it ever since the first hardback edition of Deadlands Classic. Strangely enough, I stumbled across Deadlands while running a different western-horror game.

After I'd read the Vertigo Jonah Hex comics series, I wanted to run an RPG in that same genre. So I put together a game set in 1880's Texas with vampires, werewolves, buffalo men and impish eldritch folk running around. I used a generic RPG system and began running a short campaign - Longbranch, I called it. About six to eight months later I was in a bookstore and came across Deadlands. Of course, I jumped at it. Here was a game that did everything I'd wanted and more. As it turned out, I hadn't needed to create a new game after all. So, when I finished the Longbranch campaign (which consisted of about 18-20 sessions) I started running Deadlands, and had such an excellent time with it that I never looked back. Once again, as a continuity freak, since I had begun actively running Deadlands I wanted to know as much about the setting as I could, and was intrigued by the story in general. So, I started picking up more and more of the source material.

I soon acquired a huge stack of orange books, which I'm still using for source material in my Deadlands: Reloaded campaigns to this day. To me, like with any good setting, the Deadlands continuity seems to have boundless potential for awesome stories. Despite the fact that I've run the game quite a bit over the past couple of decades, I feel as though I've still only barely scratched the surface, and because of that I want to run a lot more of it.

Essentially, Deadlands Noir combines two very BIG chunks of my RPG desires into a single game. I am dying to see how it comes out.

So, yes. I want this game BADLY. I've already been telling people I'm going to be running it in 2013.

Cool, great post. I'm actually kind of excited about it as well, though I don't really play tabletop rpgs any more. Still, I heard about the kickstarter, and tossed my money in the hat! Looking forward to a nice read.

I have similar tastes in settings, and I fondly remember "Cast a Deadly Spell" also. The closest rpg setting to it that I found was "Bloodshadows" from WEG. I always thought that would be cool to play in. Noir seems like it would have some good things in common with that.

"You call me a masterless man. You are wrong. I am my own master." a Ronin